Your Song
by Linda Lupos
Summary: Valentine fict. The wizard band Wands N' Roses is asked to play on the Feast, but Sirius and Harry get in an argument over the songs they'll play. Will everything turn out okay?


**Your Song.**  
_The sequel to "November Rain". _  
**Author:** Magical me! A.k.a. Linda Lupos!   
**Rating:** PG-13   
**Disclaimer: **all familiar things are JK Rowling´s. "_Your Song_" is a song by Elton John, though I prefer the Moulin Rouge-version. I used the Elton John version for this fict though.   
**Timeline:** is a film with David Thewlis as the bad guy. He gets beheaded in the end. Cool.  
**Timeframe:** uhm. I started writing this in November 2002, well before Order of the Phoenix came out and I realised my main character was killed off. So this is kind of during sixth year, except that The Tragic Event never happened. Don't think you'll mind anyway.  
**Author's note: **this is the sequel to my fict "_November Rain_", starring Severus Snape as a Guns 'N Roses-fan and Bill Weasley, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Harry Potter as the members of the wizard band Wands 'N Roses! There was also a mention of a rather irritating character called Mary Sue. She insisted on being in the sequel, so I'm very sorry, but she's in it. It helps if you've read "_November Rain_"; it gives you some background. It's here at TBWL.  
One of the most interesting part of a book is usually the author's note at the end, where you can read what made him or her write the story, what sources of information where used and what gave him or her inspiration. Since I absolutely adore talking about my own stories, I've included such an Author's Note at the end of this story as well. Not necessary to read, but it might provide some entertainment.   
Now, to the story! This was supposed to be funny, I'm sorry.  
  
**Your Song.**  
_A fict by Linda Lupos._  
  
"And then he dropped on his knees with his guitar and then he did this – and this – and I don't really know what he did but it looked really cool!"   
Mary Sue's endless babble was now so much a part of Snape´s morning routine that he paid no attention to her. The subject was always the same anyway – Wands N' Roses. He could almost put it into his schedule:   
7.00 – get up, yawn, look longingly at warm bed  
7.15 – take a shower, notice that hair is still greasy  
7.30 – check how current potion experiments are doing   
8.00 – go to Great Hall, have breakfast, listen to Mary Sue ranting about that blasted Sirius Black, mutter incomprehensible things that can be interpreted as "Yes, you're right"  
8.20 – go back to the dungeons to prepare lesson  
8.30 – first lesson  
Something like that. The only thing was that he didn't think her important enough to put her in his precious schedule.   
Snape suddenly noticed the second of silence that very rarely occurred when Mary Sue was taking a deep breath. He took the opportunity to interrupt: "So. And about what will you be teaching today?"   
He jaw dropped, showing her perfect white teeth. Snape ignored the sting of jealousy and kept his face interested, as if he really wanted to know.  
"Well, I, ehm… well, it's really fascinating… vampires!" she finally managed to say.  
"Really? That's interesting. About garlic and wooden stakes," he responded. She nodded feverishly, agreeing with everything he said.   
"And the only way to kill them…" he continued, looking at her expectantly. She stared back, clueless.   
"Silver bullets…" Snape said encouragingly, intentionally saying it wrong.  
"Oh, yes, of course, the silver bullet. The only way to kill a vampire!" she agreed cheerfully. "Nasty little animals, those. Brrr." She smiled a perfect smile.   
Snape had heard enough. Without another word, he rose to his feet, quickly making his way out of the Great Hall, down the Marble Staircase to the safety of his dungeons.   
But alas, he had forgotten all about the Headmaster from Hell, Albus Dumbledore, who had been annoying in the first fict, and had decided to continue being annoying in this one, simply because Snape-torture is fun!   
"Severus!" the old man called out. "Wait!"   
Snape turned around expectantly, unaware of Dumbledore´s hidden agenda. "What is it, professor?"  
Dumbledore sighed. "When are you going to call me Albus, Severus? You've been working here for so long now."  
"Sorry professor."   
The older man sighed again.  
"What is it you called me for?" asked Snape. "Anything important? News from the Order of the Phoenix? Anything about Vol-You Know Who?"  
"Severus, I hate quoting myself, but 'fear of a name increases the fear for the thing itself'," said Dumbledore sternly, though with the perpetual twinkle in his eye. "Say Voldemort, please. Anyway, I wasn't going to tell you anything, I was going to ask you something."  
"What?"  
"What do you think of your enchanting colleague, miss Mary Sue?"  
Snape gritted his teeth. He could've know. It was Dumbledore´s dream to see Snape and Mary Sue together. _Not even if we're the last persons on earth_, thought Snape.  
"She's been very helpful for my sleeping problems," said Snape politely. "Nothing helps me better into a deep sleep than a conversation with her."   
"Perfect," said Dumbledore, not in the least taken back by Snape's comment. "I heard she's very pleased with you too. She's been talking endlessly about last Halloween, and what happened when you showed her the dungeons." He winked knowingly.   
  
Snape was dreaming, his head on his table, on a pile of Potions essays he was supposed to grade. He was dreaming about him and Dumbledore talking, he dreamt about him strangling Dumbledore after that last comment. In his dreams, he stormed into the Great Hall, yelling he was going to kill Mary Sue, he put poison in the hated woman's goblet. And in the end, he blew up Hogwarts with all the students in it, especially Harry Potter and his hated Godfather. Ah, if only dreams would come true…   
"He looks almost cute when he sleeps."  
"Ah, note the word 'almost'…"   
Snape frowned in his sleep. If it wouldn't be completely ridiculous, he'd say those were the voices of Black and Lupin. But they can't enter the dungeons without his permission, can they? _Can they…? _  
"Almost a pity to wake him up."   
"You're using the word 'almost' too much, Sirius."  
Snape´s head jerked upwards. He practically strained his neck, but the sting of pain woke him up completely.   
"That's one way to wake him up," was Lupin´s dry comment.   
"What, pray tell, are you doing here, in _my_ dungeons?" hissed Snape. His bad mood got only worse when he saw that not only Sirius was now curiously examining the contents of the glass jars on the shelves. The hated man was flanked by his Godson, who was suspiciously eyeing Snape´s collection, with a disgusted face. The only person in the room Snape could stand – besides himself of course – was Bill Weasley, who was currently leaning against Snape´s round working table and basically pretending he wasn't there.   
"DO – NOT – TOUCH – THAT!" barked Snape suddenly, causing Lupin and Bill to jump three foot in the air. Harry immediately jumped back from Sirius, who was holding a large glass jar containing – something…   
"Why?" asked Sirius. "What's in it?"   
"The head of a disfigured puppy," replied Snape casually. Harry now looked positively green.   
"That's – interesting…" said Sirius. "Who ever gave it to you?"  
"I got the puppy from someone I know."  
Sirius now eyed Snape suspiciously. "Wait. You got the _puppy_ from someone you know. But, there's only it's head in the jar…You… don't mean you… cut…"   
"Indeed, Black." Snape couldn't resist smiling when he saw that, slowly, realisation dawned in Black's dim-witted mind.   
Sirius hoped, with all his might, that, in Snape-world, the baring of your yellow teeth meant a smile, and not a death-threat. He quickly put the jar back on the shelf.   
"Fascinating though disembowelled puppy's might be, we're actually not here to talk about that," interrupted Lupin politely.   
"What?" sneered Snape.  
"We're here to ask you a favour."  
Snape laughed, a short barking laugh. "Sure! And you were really thinking I would do you a favour?! Think again."  
"O, c´mon Severus, it's not that bad. We only want to use one of the dungeons."   
Snape´s eyes widened in horror. Use one of the dungeons?! And have Black walking around here all day?! Never. Stubbornly, he pressed his thin lips together (which, by the way, made him look like a toddler having a tantrum. Sorry Snape-fans).   
"Oh, please Severus. At least let us explain why," pleaded Lupin. The others had apparently decided to let him do all the talking.   
"You got five minutes," sneered Snape, "so you better keep it short."   
"Dumbledoreaskedustoplayatthevalentinesfeastbutweneedaplacetopracticeandthedungeonsarethe bestplacebecausewewon'tbotheranyonewiththenoiseheresinceit'ssodeepandfarawayfromtherestofHogwarts," rattled Lupin.   
Snape blinked. Twice. "What?"  
"Dumbledore asked us to play at the Valentines Feast, but we need a place to practice, and the dungeons are the best place because we won't bother anyone with the noise here, since it's so deep and far away from the rest of Hogwarts," explained Lupin.  
"Ah."   
"So can we use one of the dungeons then?" asked Sirius eagerly.   
Hmmm… okay, but – " Snape added sharply, glaring at Sirius who was ready to jump up and down and start celebrating " – only under one condition."  
"And what condition might that be?" inquired Lupin carefully.   
"I want to be sure that you're not making a mess of my dungeons. I´ll only give you permission if you allow me to witness your practices."   
Sirius' jaw dropped, Harry looked utterly horrified, Bill was round-eyed, only Lupin seemed to think it over, and he nodded.   
"That's reasonable," he said.   
"Reasonable?!" shrieked Sirius. Snape regarded him coolly.   
"Take it or leave it, Black," he said. "It's that, or no dungeon."  
Thus, the torture began.  
  
Harry bend over his guitar and, with the tip of his tongue sticking out, placed his fingers into a D chord.   
"Okay," said Sirius. "Now an E." It took Harry less time this time, and he and Sirius continued down the entire scale and back again, faster and faster.  
After ten more minutes of this, Snape had had enough. He laid his quill down and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Where did you learn how to play anyway?" he cut in.  
"Music school," Sirius said. It was so obvious that it wasn't an answer at all. "And I taught Harry."  
"Poor boy," Snape muttered sarcastically. On the other side of the table he was sitting at, Lupin also put his quill down. He had been making Harry's parts easier to play, but he sensed an argument between Snape and Sirius coming up, and he didn't want it to escalate.   
"Harry, I got you some more music," he said, handing the sheet over to the boy.   
"What are we going to play anyway?" asked Bill. He was running his fingers up and down the edge of the table as if he was playing a piano.   
"Well, it's a Valentine's feast, so… love songs," Harry answered seriously. The other bandmembers pulled a face.  
"Love songs?" Sirius said disgustedly. "I hope not those disgustingly sugary love songs that make teenage girls swoon?" For once in his life, Snape agreed with the man – he didn't like love songs either.   
"I didn't hear you complain when we were at school and you went to _every single _Valentine's feast," Lupin replied.   
"He did?" Harry asked, amazed.  
"And the day after, he was always incapable of comprehensible speech," Lupin added with a diabolical grin on his face.   
"Hmpf. See if I ever buy you chocolate again," Sirius huffed.   
"Were you ever capable of comprehensible speech?" Snape wondered, earning a glare from Sirius, who didn't trouble himself with answering.  
"Okay, can we get back to more important matters?" Lupin said loudly.   
"Yeah, go do something useful," Sirius told Snape.   
"Indeed," Snape immediately bit back.   
"What – are – we – going – to – play – at – the – Valentine – feast?" Lupin said slowly, gritting his teeth.   
"Well, it's a Valentine's feast, so love-songs, obviously," Harry insisted.  
"No, we're not going to do that," Sirius said.  
"Why not?"   
"Because we're a rock-band."   
Harry frowned. "So?"   
"So… they… don't play love-songs," Sirius said.  
"Uhuh." Harry looked sceptical.   
"Besides," Sirius went on, trying to convince his Godson, "save you, we're a bunch of old guys, so mushy ballads are nothing for us."   
"Hey!" Bill exclaimed.   
"Still trying to see your point." Harry had crossed his arms before his chest, looking at Sirius.   
"Well, uhm." Sirius looked at Lupin for support, who looked back with an expression that told Sirius to figure it out himself. He had offended Bill, so no help from that side either, and Snape was out of the question anyway. "Uhm."   
"Hm?" Harry raised his eyebrows. "What?"   
"Argh!" Sirius said, utterly frustrated. "What should you care anyway? You're only the bass guitarist!"   
The temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees.   
"Oh," Harry said icily, with a tone he'd picked up from Snape. "Is that so? Well, than I guess you won't be needing me anymore, since I'm _only the bass guitarist_!" And with that he turned on his heels and walked right out of the dungeon.   
"SHUT UP!" Sirius bellowed to Snape, who hadn't even _moved_. He got to his feet to run after Harry, but Lupin was quicker and pushed his friend back on his chair.  
"Sirius, stop taking your anger out on other people," he said. "I´ll go and talk with Harry, okay?" And with that he left the room to look for Harry and try and make amends.   
  
It was already a few hours later when Lupin found Sirius back in the courtyard, where he was staring moodily at the ground. Mary Sue was draped over him, but the former skirt-chaser didn't seem to notice. She shifted her attention to Lupin when she saw him approach.  
"Professor Lupin!" she squealed. "How nice to see you here!"   
"Hi Mary Sue," he said politely. "I´d like to talk to Sirius please."   
She smiled and remained where she was.  
"Now?"   
She kept smiling.  
"_In private_?"   
"Ooooooh!" She widened her sapphire eyes. "Why didn't you say so, silly!" She playfully slapped his arm. Lupin raised both eyebrows.  
"Right. Now, shoo." He shooed her away, and she left, walking slowly, showing off her curvy figure. Lupin stared after her but finally sat down next to Sirius.  
"Hey."  
"And?" Sirius said, studying the dark grass in front of him.   
"You're the most stubborn git he's ever met, you always want things done exactly your way and you never listen to what anyone else says. Apart from that you also think you're the best in the world and that everybody else should bow to you."  
Sirius looked up. "Did he really said that?"   
"No, I was paraphrasing," Lupin answered lightly. Sirius hung his head again.   
"I messed up, right?"   
"That you did."   
"James would kill me if he knew."   
"Probably."   
Sirius pulled a face. "You're not even _trying_ to comfort me, are you?"   
"It's not my problem," Lupin shrugged. "So frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."   
His friend scowled. "Children." Lupin nudged his ribs.   
"Better not say that in a courtyard in the biggest magical school in Great Britain."   
Sirius leaned back, resting his head on the back rest of the stone bench, the ultimate depiction of misery. "What shall I do, Moony?"   
"You mean besides apologising?"   
Sirius sighed, then asked: "what did you tell him anyway?"   
"Oh, the predictable stuff," Lupin said casually. Interested despite everything, Sirius raised his head.   
"What's that?"   
"Well, that love-songs made you bitter and jealous because you didn't have a love-life to speak of, and – ouch, will you stop hitting me?!"   
"Tell me the truth or I´ll annoy you forever!" Sirius said, only mock-angry.   
"Sirius, what will the students think?" Lupin glanced around just in case there were any students looking.  
"They'd finally realised that their librarian-slash-DADA-assistant-teacher is a complete nutter, and you'd be locked away with Lockhart, and rightfully so!"   
"Okay, okay, sorry!" Lupin apologetically raised both his hands. "I said that you were indeed a stubborn git – well, you are – but that you might have had a reason, and a good one too, and that it might pay to hear you out. With or without some light torture, hot irons, etcetera…"   
Sirius looked at him, hanging his head with his eyes upwards. It made him look quite hung-over. "D'you really want to know?" he asked.  
"I really want to know."   
"Just… promise you won't laugh okay?"   
"I´ll do my best."   
Sirius scowled. "What's that kind of promise? Yes or no?"   
"Well, I can't do more than my best, right?" Lupin smiled. "Let's hear this tale of yours."  
"Okay." Sirius sighed, then took a deep breath. "The reason I don't like love-songs is…"   
Then, a few minutes later: "you said you wouldn't laugh!"   
  
"Wait a minute," Bill said incredulously. "_That_ is your reason? _That _is why you had a fight with Harry over something as trivial as the songs we're going to play, and _that_ is why we don't have a bass guitarist anymore?"   
It was evening, and the three remaining members of Wands N' Roses were gathered in Snape´s dungeons. The Potions Master himself wasn't there, but Lupin had a key and they had let themselves in. It wasn't as if this particular dungeon was part of Snape´s private quarters anyway.   
"Uhm, yeah," Sirius said, embarrassed. "Pretty stupid, huh?"   
"Well, stupid's maybe not the word," Bill replied. "I'd rather chose RANDOM, INCREDIBLE AND UNBELIEVABLY CHILDISH!"   
BAM.  
Snape had thrown the door open and marched in. "Get quiet or get out," he hissed. "Some people have actual jobs to do, you know, instead of a made-up one such as librarian and assistant-DADA-teacher mixed into one."  
Lupin shrugged. "Don't see the students complain."   
"What was all this noise about anyway?" Snape demanded to know. "I heard someone say 'unbelievably childish' – has Black been up to something stupid as usual?"   
"Ha – ha – ha," Sirius said. "Very funny."   
"Sirius has just explained why he doesn't like love-songs," Bill said, glaring at Sirius.  
"And?"   
"None of your business," Sirius said hastily. Lupin and Bill frowned, as did Snape.  
"Black," he said, "may I remind you that you are in _my_ dungeon, that you and that despicable Godson of yours had a fight in _my_ dungeon, and that I know ways to find out anyway, whether you want me to or not?"   
A dubious silence followed.   
"I´ll tell him," Lupin offered.   
"Moony, if you dare…" Sirius threatened. Lupin ignored him.  
"It's actually quite funny," he told Snape. "You see, a few years ago, after his seventh year at Hogwarts, Sirius had this girlfriend – "   
"Again?" Snape said, sarcastically raising his eyebrow.   
"As usual. Anyway, she was quite different from all his other girlfriends, because, instead of being dumped, she dumped Sirius."   
Sirius hung his head, and thus didn't see Snape glancing at him, a smirk on his face.   
"She claimed he was shallow," Lupin continued, already having small fits of laughter. "Now, instead of just getting drunk and going on with his life like any normal guy would do, Sirius, after all not quite used to this whole new concept of being dumped, decided for a completely other approach."   
"And that was?" Snape found himself interested besides himself.   
"Instead, he just locked himself in his room and simply felt _incredibly_ sorry for himself. And, most importantly, he spend the whole day listening to sappy love-songs and crying over them. All the clichés – I love you, I miss you, you broke my heart, please come back, if I could just see you one more time – he's heard them all. Three weeks later James kicked him out of his room and onto a broomstick, to play Quidditch, and that cured him. And now he claims he's allergic to love-songs and won't play them nor hear them."   
Snape was amazed. "I don't believe you," he said. He turned to Sirius. "That's just – "  
"Incredibly stupid, I know," Sirius sighed.   
"And because he can't get over something that happened nearly twenty years ago, we're now stuck without a bass guitarist," Bill summarised the whole thing.   
"You could just apologise," Lupin said. "It won't kill you."   
"You sure of it?" Sirius asked moodily. "Can't we just find someone else to play bass guitar?"   
Snape suddenly found himself the centre of attention.   
"If you're suggesting – " Bill began, but Snape cut him off.  
"No way in hell," he said. "I'm not doing it, whatever you say. I can't play anyway."   
"That's the problem, Sirius," Lupin said, pleadingly. "The feast is next week, and unless you know someone who can play or who can be trained to play bass guitar in a week, we're rather stuck."   
Sirius sighed.   
  
The next morning, at breakfast…   
Snape sat down next to Lupin, who was buttering a sandwich and humming merrily. It was a complete mystery to Snape why the werewolf was always so cheerful, or how he managed to do it. Sometimes, really sometimes, he wished he could do it too. Instead, he decided to act his normal grumpy self.  
"And, what are you today?" he asked, and reached for the coffee pot.   
"And a good morning to you too," Lupin replied, handing Snape the tray with toast. "Today I'm a librarian, and I´ll have the pleasure to spend my entire day among books."   
"Whatever you prefer," Snape muttered, hiding his envy. "Where's Black?"   
"Outside. Said he had no appetite for breakfast," Lupin said. "In other words, he doesn't want to talk to anybody."   
"Stubborn idiot," Snape said.   
"Much like you," Lupin muttered on his turn.  
"What was that?"   
Snape would never find out, because Mary Sue appeared. Lupin saw her approach, dropped his knife and immediately hid under the table.   
"What on earth are you doing?" Snape hissed, for some reason uncomfortable having his feet so close to the werewolf.   
"Is she gone?" Lupin hissed back. Snape watched Mary Sue sit down next to Flitwick, greet the tiny man with a dazzling smile and immediately embark on a long-winded story about that time her impeccable wand-waving helped her out of a tight spot, then he said: "she's sitting next to Filius."   
Lupin emerged from under the table. "Filius? What's she sitting next to him for?"   
"Perhaps because she had no desire to sit next to you under the table?" Snape answered, with only a tiny hint of sarcasm.   
"Quite an interesting place though," Lupin said.   
Snape frowned. "Why were you there anyway? It seemed as if you were avoiding her."   
"I was." Lupin sighed. "She's after me. She won't stop following me, and when she's cornered me, she starts squealing and she's all over me." He shivered.   
"Could it have anything to do with the fact that you're her _assistant_?" Snape suggested.  
"No, because the things she talks about have nothing to do with Defence Against the Dark Arts."   
Snape raised both his eyebrows. "Oh really?"   
"Yes. And I'm not gonna tell you what those things are." Lupin looked so uncomfortable that Snape was able to guess anyway.   
"Well, then it can only be one thing," he said.   
"And that is?"   
"Animal magnetism." The glare of death he received told Snape that he had once again succeeded in insulting his colleague.  
  
Watching Lupin put the returned books back on their shelves had always been a spectacle. Instead of using a trolley or anything, the man charmed the books so that they floated behind them like a large flock of sheep, while he walked from aisle to aisle and put them back on their places.   
Harry was watching him, pretending to be doing his Transfiguration homework. His friends Ron and Hermione had gone off to the North Tower, claiming Ron needed to pick up on his Astronomy homework – in broad daylight. Harry didn't mind that his best friends were making up weak excuses to cover up that they were seeing each other, but it did make him feel lonely sometimes.   
He bowed back over his parchment and read what he'd just written. Professor McGonagall was teaching them how the basics of human transfiguration, to prepare them for Advanced Transfiguration, and she had asked for an essay about Animagi. He wrote a bit more, mainly stuff Sirius had told him, but after a few lines he didn't know what to write next. He put his quill down, got to his feet and walked to the Transfiguration section of the library.   
Lupin was there as well, picking books from his flock and putting them back on the shelves. He stopped when he saw Harry. "Hello, Harry," he said.   
"Hi." Harry didn't know what else to say.  
"How´re you doing?" Harry shrugged.  
"Okay, I guess. How's Sirius?"   
Lupin sighed. "As stubborn as ever. Can I help you with anything?"   
"Yeah, I need books about Animagi." Harry was pretty sure Lupin knew exactly the right books, being a good friend of his father and Sirius.   
And indeed, the man's face lit up. "I know exactly what you need." He turned to the shelves and started plucking books off at such a speed that Harry doubted if he was even reading the spines. Pretty soon, he was holding several books.   
He staggered back to the table he had been sitting at, careful not to drop the books, and sat down again. The spine of the first book creaked when he opened it, and it seemed so old that he wouldn't have been surprised to see his father's name on the list of students who'd checked the book out. He started reading and was pretty soon emerged in the book.   
He only looked up when somebody sat down opposite him. Ginny Weasley put down her books next to Harry's and smiled at him. "Hi."   
"Hey."   
"What're you doing?"   
"Transfiguration," Harry said, rolling his eyes. She smiled again.  
"History of Magic myself." She flapped one of the books open. "Hey, have you seen Hermione?"   
"You might as well ask where Ron is," Harry said, grinning. Ginny chuckled as well. She knew her brother through-and-through, and Ron's ears made it impossible to hide anything from his sister or friend anyway.   
Harry suddenly found himself thinking that Ginny's smile was one of the prettiest he had ever seen. This thought startled him so much that he quickly looked at his book again. Ginny, who had seen Harry look, flushed and looked down as well.   
Several minutes passed in silence. Harry added another foot to his essay and started thinking of ending it when Ginny broke the silence.   
"Hey, Harry...?"   
He looked up. "Hm?" He thought she needed help with History of Magic or something, but judging by her blush, that wasn't it.   
"You know, next Saturday…" She fidgeted nervously with her quill.   
"What about it?"   
"Uhm, the Valentine feast…"   
"Oh, right." His face fell. He'd hoped to forget about that for a while. "What about that?"   
"I was wondering if, uhm…" She was by now blushing deep crimson. "If you – you know – if you were going to, uhm – if you wanted to take me to it."   
"Oh!" Harry immediately turned as beet-red as she. Of course Lupin chose this particular moment to walk past, now completely flock-less, but he didn't seem to notice anything.   
"Uhh," Harry stuttered. "I – well, uhm, sure. Okay."   
Ginny grinned nervously, biting her lip and still red, but with a gleam in her eyes. "Okay," she said, and turned back to her books as if nothing had happened. Harry did the same, unable to stop himself from grinning stupidly.  
Strangely enough, the room suddenly seemed twenty degrees warmer as well.  
  
"Please tell me you apologised and Harry's back in the band," Bill begged when he walked into the room. Sirius suddenly appeared very interested in tuning his guitar and didn't respond. Bill gritted his teeth.  
"Great," he said. "No bass guitar player. We might as well not play."   
Lupin stopped practising twirling his drum sticks. "Not play?" Sirius looked up as well.  
Bill crossed his arms. "You two know my girlfriend, Fleur? You two have _any_ idea what temper she'll get in if I don't have a good reason for not showing up for Valentine's day? And I somehow don't think she'll think performing with one bandmember too little a good reason while I could just as well be on a date with her!"   
"Fair point," Lupin nodded. "Padfoot, I really think you should talk to Harry. The feast's tomorrow, it isn't too late yet."   
"Didn't you talk to him?" Sirius asked.   
"Well, yeah. But it didn't go any deeper than 'you okay?' 'yeah. Sirius still an ass?' ' yeah'. I didn't tell him anything of your reasons."   
"Why not?"   
Lupin shrugged. "I figured that that was up to you. After all, this is all your fault. You asked him to play with us, you made him leave again, then it's up to you to make him come back again. Seems logic enough for me."   
"Hmm."   
"Although I'm not sure if he has time to play with us," Lupin said pensively. The others looked at him. "Why?"   
A wolfish grin appeared on Lupin's face. "He's going to the Feast with Ginny Weasley."   
Sirius jumped to his feet, surprise making him unable to stay seated. "Ginny Weasley? You mean the red-head?"  
"You know another Ginny Weasley?"   
"No. But how do _you_ know?"   
"Oh," Lupin said airily. "I happened to overhear a conversation and heard her ask him."   
"Sure," Sirius said sceptically. "You never _happen_ to overhear a conversation, not with those ears of you." Lupin waved this comment away.   
"That's not the point. But he'll probably have something else on his mind that evening."   
"Anyway," Bill cut in," what are we going to play, if we're going to play?"   
There was a knock on the door. Snape put down his quill and got to his feet. As he watched his colleague walk to the door, Lupin said: "maybe we should let Sirius decide, before he'll scare us away as well."   
"Ha, ha, ha," Sirius said sarcastically. "Really funny."   
Snape finished talking to the person who'd knocked and turned around. "Lupin, it's for you."   
Lupin was surprised. "Who is it?"   
Snape scowled. "Mary Sue. Wants a word with you. _In private_."   
"Oh." Lupin's cheeks turned a faint pink. "I see. Uhm, be right back." He hurried out of the dungeon. The three remaining men looked after him. Snape and Sirius both pulled up both eyebrows, but disgustedly scowled when they saw the other do it. No way they were going to agree on something.  
"Answer to my question?" Bill asked, breaking the silence.   
"I just got a wonderful idea," Sirius said, his face lighting up. "But I need your help."   
"My help or my fingers on the piano?"   
"Both, if possible."   
  
Valentine's Day arrived, the first sunny Saturday of the year. The school already got in the right romantic mood by breakfast, when Hermione, dared by Ginny, kissed Ron in the middle of the Great Hall. There was a stunned silence at first, then a storm of cat-calls and laughter broke loose, especially when Ron, his ears redder than his hair, kissed right back.   
The giddy atmosphere stayed, especially when the owls started coming in, holding pink or red envelopes.   
"And Lockhart´s not even here," Minerva McGonagall said in an undertone to Snape. She glared at the forty-six Valentine's cards in front of Mary Sue. And they kept coming in.   
"Thank Merlin he isn't," Snape growled back. He reached for the bacon but quickly drew his hand back when he saw it was heart-shaped. Another 'great' idea of Dumbledore.  
"The marmalade's safe," McGonagall said, noticing his foul look. Snape took the small jar.   
"Do you have any idea what's going to happen this evening?" she asked while he smeared the strawberry marmalade on his toast.   
"Black says he has a surprise planned," Snape said, and he bit a piece of toast off and started chewing viciously. "Knowing him it'll probably be something disastrous."   
"Will the castle still stand afterwards?" McGonagall joked, but Snape sighed.  
"I'd almost hope so, where it not that it would rid us of the students," he said, and even allowed himself a small smile. It was not often that he made a joke. If it was one.   
  
"Could you please tell me what you're going to do?" Lupin begged. He was standing outside the dungeon Wands N' Roses always practised in. Sirius had opened the door a little bit, just enough to show his face. He had flatly refused his friend to come in.   
"No, it's a surprise," he said.   
"Is it something incredibly stupid?"   
"Of course."   
"Why did you tell Bill and not me?"   
"Because."   
"Does it have something to do with apologising to Harry? Please tell me it is."   
Sirius thought this over for a minute. "Hmm, sort of."   
"What kind of an answer is that?!" Lupin tried to see inside the dungeon, but Sirius closed the door a little more.   
"Are we going to play tonight?" Lupin then wanted to know.  
"Yes, but we won't need you in the first number, so you can stay and watch," Sirius said. "Oh, is it true that Sinistra plays the cello?"   
"What?" Lupin said, taken aback. "I don't know, ask her."   
"I will, thank you. Bye." And Sirius closed the door with a snap, leaving a confused Lupin in the hallway.   
  
A few hours later, Lupin found himself standing backstage with Snape and Fleur, trying to peek through the thick red curtain to the students gathered in the Great Hall. He and Snape both nervously tried not to stare at Fleur, who was one of the most beautiful girls they'd ever seen (save Mary Sue of course, but she was probably half-Veela herself). Fleur herself was angrily tapping the floor with her foot. It didn't please her at all that Bill had decided to perform after all instead of spending Valentine's Day with her. So she'd decided to come and watch, to be sure that he _was _performing.   
Bill himself only showed up a minute before they had to begin. Sirius followed in his footsteps, and he in his turn was followed by Sinistra, wearing a black evening gown and carrying her cello. Sirius looked pale, and he swallowed nervously.   
"Never thought I'd ask, but what's up with you?" Snape sneered.   
"Allergy," Sirius peeped.   
"Allergy?" Lupin repeated. "You're not allergic to anyth – wait a minute. This isn't your imagined lovesong-allergy, is it?"   
Sirius nodded.   
"That's ridiculous, you're not going to play any love songs," Snape said. Sirius avoided their eyes and Lupin burst into laughter.   
"He ís," he said. "Oh, this is rich. Very original way of apologising, Sirius." Sirius glared, but couldn't say anything because Dumbledore had just announced them, and Bill pushed him on the stage. Backstage there was a short fight over the best place to look on the stage, which was won by Lupin because he was armed with his drum sticks. Snape took position behind him and looked over his shoulder, while Fleur, who couldn't care less about Sirius, walked to the other side, closer to Bill.   
Meanwhile, on the stage, Sirius walked towards a lone bar stool in front of a microphone. Bill took position behind the piano and Sinistra installed herself on a chair and tuned her cello. When she was done, Sirius took the microphone and nervously scraped his throat.   
"Good evening," he said. The crowd cheered and the Sirius-fans squealed. When they silenced again, Sirius continued. "The first song is dedicated to someone here." Another squeal of the Sirius-fans. "It's dedicated to, uhm, Harry Potter, whom I love dearly –" the Slytherins sniggered "– in a _very_ platonic, father-son kind of way." Boos from the gutter-minded Slytherins. Sirius gulped nervously. "It's, er, meant as an apology because I've been an idiot." The audience aww-ed.   
Lupin searched the crowd, looking for Harry. He finally found him sitting at one of the round tables with Ron, Hermione and Ginny, leaning on his elbows, bowed slightly forward, as to not miss a word of what Sirius was saying.   
"We had a fight over something stupid," his Godfather continued, "and I do hope that this song will prove that I'm really sorry. Uhm, so, Harry, this is, er, _Your Song_. Not really literally your song, but it's, well, called that, uhm – " He was talking nonsense, and he knew it. Sirius shut up and gave a signal to Bill, who started playing.   
The crowd cheered when they heard the familiar intro. There wasn't much time for Sirius to prepare, after only a short intro he grabbed the microphone and started singing.   
"_It's a little bit funny_," he sang.   
"_This feeling inside  
I'm not one of those who can easily hide_." His hands fidgeted nervously with the sleeves of his shirt. He missed his guitar, there was nothing to hold on to.  
"_I don't have much money but_– "   
Snape snorted in Lupin's ear. "Sure."   
" – _boy if I did  
I'd buy a big house were we both could live_."   
"Wouldn't that be nice?" Snape whispered sarcastically.   
"Shut up," Lupin hissed back. Apart from them and Sirius, everybody was silent, listening intently to the song. Sinistra put her bow on the strings and started playing as well.   
"_If I were a sculptor_," Sirius continued, clinging to the microphone as if for dear life.   
"_But then again no  
Or a man who makes potions in a   
Travelling show_."  
"Not with your talent," Snape muttered.  
"_I know it's not much but it's the best I can do  
My gift is my song and  
This one's for you_." Hooting from the crowd. Several students looked at Harry, who didn't pay any attention to them, but kept looking at Sirius, a faint smile on his face.   
"_And you can tell everybody   
This is your song  
It may be quite simple but  
Now that it's done  
I hope you don't mind  
I hope you don't mind  
That I put down in words  
How wonderful life is  
Now you're in the world_." The audience sighed, and there was again a faint "aww". Sirius had a short pause to catch his breath, then continued again, more confident.   
"_Sat on the roof  
And I kicked off the moss  
Well a few of the verses, well, they got me quite cross_," he sang with a faint smile.   
"_But the sun's been quite kind  
While I wrote this song  
It's people like you that  
Keep it turned on_." He allowed himself a wink, and the Sirius-fans squealed.  
"_So excuse me forgetting  
But these things I do  
You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue_." He shrugged with a shy smile.  
"_Anyway the thing is, what I really mean  
Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen_." Despite his proclaimed allergy, the song was going perfectly, and the better it got, the more Sirius got used to singing on stage. He took the microphone and got to his feet, singing more and more enthusiastically. His mood was infectious – several students were waving cigarette lighters and Lupin found himself grinning stupidly at his singing friend. Even Snape couldn't fight back a small smile and a feeling one could possibly describe as 'happy'.  
"_And you can tell everybody_," Sirius sang.   
"_This is your song  
It may be quite simple but  
Now that it's done  
I hope you don't mind  
I hope you don't mind  
That I put down in words  
How wonderful life is now you're in the world_." He took position at the edge of the stage, ready for the finale.  
"_I hope you don't mind  
I hope you don't mind  
That I put down in words  
How wonderful life is now you're in the world…_" The applause started even before the song had properly ended. Sirius bowed a few times, a broad grin on his face.   
Lupin leaned forward to see what Harry was doing, but the boy was not there – Ginny was sitting next to an empty chair. She was applauding and cheering, just like Ron and Hermione. Just like everybody else in fact. Lupin had no time to think about Harry's whereabouts, because Sirius appeared, sweat on his forehead but still a broad grin on his face.   
"And?" he said anxiously.   
"Well, I don't know…" Lupin said jokingly. Sirius' face fell.   
"That bad?"   
"Padfoot, you idiot, listen!" Lupin gestured to the still cheering audience. "It was great!"   
"Absolutely true," a voice behind him said. Harry was standing there, grinning as broadly as Sirius. "Apologise accepted," he said.   
"Harry, I've been such an idiot," Sirius said pleadingly. "Please forgive me?"   
"I just did," Harry said. "But next time you might sing _Sorry seems to be the hardest word_, if you're going for Elton John songs. More appropriate."  
"Yeah, well, that isn't really a love song, is it?"   
"Hey, guys, what are we going to do?" Bill cut in. He had left his piano stool and was now standing impatiently just off the stage. "Are we going to play or what? Hey, Harry!" He only just now noticed him. "What are you doing here? Going to strangle Sirius? You have my blessing."   
"No, actually Ginny told me to get up here," Harry said. "Said I'd better get myself on the stage and play with you three." Bill clapped his hands together and mimicked praying.  
"Remind me to thank my little sister," he said, utterly relieved. "Can we get up the stage now?"   
"Yes, where's my guitar?" Sirius asked. Harry already handed him the black electric guitar and hung his own blue one over his shoulder.   
"What's the first number?" he asked.   
"_Everything I do, I do it for you_," Lupin said in a voice that made discussion impossible.   
"But that's a – "Sirius began.  
"Love song, yes. Time to get rid of your allergy once and for all." He saw Harry looking curiously at him. "No time for explaining, get on the stage." Bill had already left for his piano, and Harry slipped past Sirius and Lupin to get on stage as well. The crowd cheered madly again. Lupin took Sirius by the scruff of his neck right before his friend wanted to get onstage as well.   
"It was great," he said.   
"Really?" Sirius' face shone with pride.   
"Yes." Lupin smiled, then his smile turned into a grin. "Now get up there and play better!" And he whacked his friend on the head with his drum sticks before slipping onstage himself. Sirius waited a few seconds, then followed, into the light and the thunder of the cheering crowd.  
  
A few hours later...  
Lupin poured butterbeer in two goblets and handed Sirius one.   
"No Firewhiskey?" he said sadly.   
"Doctor's orders, no Firewhiskey for you," Lupin said briskly. He sat down on his bed in the room he and Sirius shared. It was oddly much like sleeping in a dormitory again.   
"I don't think we are talking about the same doctor now," Sirius replied. He sat down on his bed as well and drew his feet up.   
"I told you, since that time you threw up on my bed Firewhiskey is absolutely forbidden for you." Lupin took a gulp of butterbeer.   
"Hmm." Sirius drank as well.   
"You got a hole in your sock," Lupin pointed. Sirius looked to check.  
"You're right." His big toe was staring back at him.  
"This is great," Lupin said. "It's Valentine's Day, or Evening actually, I could be on a fantastic date, and instead I'm stuck here with you drinking butterbeer and pointing out holes in your socks."   
"You could've run off with Mary Sue," Sirius pointed out.   
"No, because she has run off with Draco Malfoy," Lupin said. Sirius flinched.  
"Draco Malfoy? Isn't that really disgusting and all that?"   
"No, because it turned out he is conveniently sixteen years old, so it doesn't matter." Lupin took another gulp of butterbeer. "She said she liked that evil streak he has, but that he's really just a fluffy bunny inside. Not those exact words of course."   
"Naturally."   
They sat in silence for a few minutes, then Sirius asked: "but if you could, would you?"   
"Would I what?" The butterbeer warmed Lupin up from inside and made him sleepy.   
"Would you date her now if you could?"   
"Padfoot, right now I couldn't care less about Mary Sue."   
"You didn't yesterday, when she wanted to talk to you," Sirius said shrewdly. Lupin blinked.  
"How do you know – I mean – uhm…" He blushed.  
"_I'm not one of those who can easily hide_," Sirius sang softly and teasingly. Lupin blushed even more.   
"Okay, that's enough," he said.   
"But would you go on a date with her if she asked you?" Sirius insisted.  
"Padfoot, other subject okay?" Lupin sighed.  
"Okay." Sirius thought for a minute, then asked: "would you date McGonagall if she asked you?" Lupin groaned.  
"I thought I said other subject."   
"This is another subject!" Sirius objected. "It's not about Mary Sue."   
"No, I wouldn't date her if they paid me, she's too old. Happy now?"   
"Would you date Dumbledore?" Sirius went on.  
"Yuck."  
"Snape?"   
"Not even if he washed himself. That's too gross to think about."   
"Would you date me?" Lupin stared. Sirius smiled and batted his eyelashes in a mock-impression of a girl.   
"Sirius," Lupin said, rolling his eyes, "you're already driving me crazy. I don't want to think about what would happen if I had to endure you on a romantic date. Please shut up."   
"Moony, I'm hurt," Sirius said dramatically, a hand on his heart. "Just one more thing, okay?"  
"What?"   
"What about Hagrid?" He tried to look seriously at his friend but the twinkle in his eye made this attempt laughable.  
"Padfoot?"   
"Hm?"   
"Shut up."  
  
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!   
  
* * * * * * * * * *   
**Funny or significant or simply funny to know stuff. **  
- The bit after Lupin telling that Sirius was always incapable of comprehensible speech after a Valentine's Feast was written in November 2002, the part after that was written in February 2004. It took Sirius more than a year to come up with that 'witty' reply…  
- Amazingly enough, I had written that little bit with Sirius teaching Harry how to play the guitar months before I found out Gary Oldman (Sirius in the movies) learned Daniel Radcliffe how to play the electrical guitar! In fact, I wrote it months before filming on HP3 began, so even before Gary started to teach Daniel. Life imitating art? One would almost think so…  
- "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" is of course from the movie _Gone with the Wind_. One of the most quotable movie-quotes, and I just had to add it.  
- "D'you really want to know?"   
"I really want to know" – this conversation is eerily similar to a conversation in _Love, Actually_. I watch too many movies.  
- "…and immediately embark on a long-winded story about that time her impeccable wand-waving helped her out of a tight spot" – stupid Mary Sues who always seem to manage to get themselves out of anything, grumble, grumble…   
- "Well, then it can only be one thing," he said.   
"And that is?"   
"Animal magnetism." – of course it's animal magnetism. Apart from Lupin being a werewolf (and thus being half-animal, according to some), there is a funny link between Snape and animal magnetism as well – animal magnetism is a term one French doctor Anton Mesmer came up with. He was one of the first to study and practice hypnotism to cure people, and he said that animal magnetism was the force that enabled people to be hypnotised. A movie has been made about Mesmer, and in it he was played by none other than Alan Rickman. Quite funny if you know that Mesmer said that one could hypnotise people by speaking in a slow, low voice…  
- "Sirius still an ass?" – of course I mean a donkey, not a pair of buttocks.  
- "She glared at the forty-six Valentine's cards in front of Mary Sue." – turns out there is a connection to Lockhart after all: 46 is the number of Valentine cards dear Gilderoy thanked for.   
- "But next time you might sing _Sorry seems to be the hardest word_, if you're going for Elton John songs. More appropriate." – to get in the right mood I got my mother's Elton John CD and listened to it for hours on end (slight exaggeration). When I heard the song _Sorry seems to be the hardest word_, it actually seemed way more appropriate for the story, but I'd already decided it was going to be _Your Song_, and I didn't want to change the story just for another song.   
- And then I got sick of Elton John and put Brian Adams in my DiscMan. _Everything I do_ was the song I was listening to at that moment, so that was what they were going to play. It's not really fit to play with an electric guitar – at least, Sirius and Harry won't have much to do in the beginning – but who cares?  
- "No, because it turned out he is conveniently sixteen years old, so it doesn't matter." – isn't it strange that in all those romance ficts, the Trio, Draco and Ginny are all conveniently sixteen, so they can have sex?  
- "She said she liked that evil streak he has, but that he's really just a fluffy bunny inside." – the big dream and hope of Draco-fans around the world. Of Snape-fans too, come to think of it... 


End file.
